acluhttp://www.readthehook.com/taxonomy/term/1039/all
enNo contact: JADE blogger takes pleahttp://www.readthehook.com/69852/no-contact-jade-blogger-takes-plea
<!&#8211; This will not be inserted &#8211;><!&#8211; This will not be inserted &#8211;><div class="captionLeftLandscape"><a href="http://www.readthehook.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/news-elisha-strom.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-16781" title="news-elisha-strom" src="http://www.readthehook.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/news-elisha-strom-325x343.jpg" alt="news-elisha-strom" width="325" height="343" /></a><strong>Forbidden from following JADE officers around, Elisha Strom still questions the task force's effectiveness.</strong><br />
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<p><a href="http://www.readthehook.com/stories/2009/09/17/COVER-hearte-jadeAm.aspx">Elisha Strom</a>, the woman whose <a href="http://www.readthehook.com/blog/index.php/2009/07/30/hobby-or-harassment-blogger-strom-jailed-for-cop-site/">month in jail</a> for blogging caught the attention of the nation's top civil rights organization, pleaded guilty Thursday in Albemarle General District Court to two counts of obstruction of justice.<br />
</p><p class="whitespace">"Yay," exclaimed the fuchsia-haired Strom after the hearing at which she received a six-month suspended sentence in Albemarle, and a 60-day suspended sentence for the Charlottesville charge.<br />
</p><p class="whitespace">Strom had downplayed her<a href="http://iheartejade.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2009-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-05%3A00&amp;updated-max=2010-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-05%3A00&amp;max-results=50"> I HeArTE JADE blog</a> and her surveillance of the Jefferson Area Drug Enforcement task force officer as a "hobby," but her publication of the name, address, and photographs of an officer's home&#8211;- although obtained from public records&#8211;- brought her a felony charge of intention to harass or intimidate under an obscure Virginia law that the <a href="http://www.readthehook.com/blog/index.php/2009/08/18/aclu-offers-but-jade-watcher-fears-retribution/">ACLU says</a> is unconstitutional.<br />
</p><p class="whitespace">That charge was followed by an obstruction of justice charge September 2 from Charlottesville, which alleges she interfered with a July 9 undercover drug buy at Belmont Park.<br />
</p><p class="whitespace">In the plea agreement, the Class 6 felony charge in Albemarle was reduced to misdemeanor obstruction of justice.<br />
</p><p class="whitespace">As part of the plea and suspended sentence, she's ordered to stay far&#8211;- at least 300 yards&#8211;- from JADE premises and its officers' homes and ordered not to contact the officers, including Virginia State Police Special Agent Jason Trent, who investigated the case.<br />
</p><p class="whitespace">"It had gotten to the point she was following family members," says Charlottesville Commonwealth's Attorney Dave Chapman. "It's unnerving. People who do important jobs [for the government] need to be free from fear."<br />
</p><p class="whitespace">"These guys are such cupcakes," retorts Strom.<br />
</p><p class="whitespace">Strom says a risk assessment conducted on her after the charges were filed discounted any notion that she would harm the officers.<br />
</p><p class="whitespace">"They said I was a threat," says Strom. "They knew all along I wasn't dangerous."<br />
</p><p class="whitespace">She also disputes the notion that she interfered with the Belmont Park bust that ended in a low-speed chase.<br />
</p><p class="whitespace">"In a drug context, that's a very sensitive operation," says Chapman. "Someone could get hurt or killed. She's there driving around. The appearance of the same vehicle could spook the target."<br />
</p><p class="whitespace">"There is no way I obstructed that," says Strom. "I was parked&#8211;- the pictures show I was in one spot."<br />
</p><p class="whitespace">Strom says she decided to accept the plea when she began feeling like she was fighting for a free speech issue that people really don't care about.<br />
</p><p class="whitespace">"The court of public opinion had already convicted me," she maintains. "They never think it's going to happen to them."<br />
</p><p class="whitespace">Strom says she didn't initially see the case as a free speech issue until plea negotiations began and the prosecution wanted her to take down her blog.<br />
</p><p class="whitespace">"They wanted no future blogs and no discussion of the task force on the Internet," says Strom, who balked at the conditions.<br />
</p><p class="whitespace">Under the revised plea, Strom agrees to take down the address and photo of the JADE officer's house&#8211;- which she says she got off the Albemarle County website&#8211;- and post no new photos of JADE men from October 15 on. She expects to have her computer back in a week, and plans to finish the blog.<br />
</p><p class="whitespace">"It ends with, 'Uh-oh. They're here.'" remembers Strom, who's been computer-less since her July 16 arrest.<br />
</p><p class="whitespace">And after that for the woman who's married to, but estranged from Kevin Strom, once a leading figure in the white separatist movement whom she helped convict on one count of child porn possession?<br />
</p><p class="whitespace">"I'll have to find a new hobby," says Strom.</p>
http://www.readthehook.com/69852/no-contact-jade-blogger-takes-plea#comments_BreakingNewsFeaturedCrime/Justiceacluelisha stromi HeArTE JADEjadeThu, 15 Oct 2009 20:16:36 +0000lisa69852 at http://www.readthehook.comHobby or harassment? Blogger Strom jailed for cop sitehttp://www.readthehook.com/70679/hobby-or-harassment-blogger-strom-jailed-cop-site
<!&#8211; This will not be inserted &#8211;><!&#8211; This will not be inserted &#8211;><div class="captionLeftLandscape"><a href="http://www.readthehook.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/news-elisha-strom.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-16781" title="news-elisha-strom" src="http://www.readthehook.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/news-elisha-strom-325x343.jpg" alt="news-elisha-strom" width="325" height="343" /></a><strong>Elisha Strom.</strong><br />
<small>ALBEMARLE CHARLOTTESVILLE REGIONAL JAIL<br />
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<p>Elisha Strom has been sitting in Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail for two weeks. Her alleged crime? Publishing the address of an officer on the Jefferson Area Drug Enforcement&#8211; JADE&#8211; task force.<br />
</p><p class="whitespace">"It's a stupid reason to be in jail," says the 34-year-old blogger, who maintains she was merely chronicling the activities of JADE as a hobby on her blog, <a href="http://iheartejade.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2009-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-05%3A00&amp;updated-max=2010-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-05%3A00&amp;max-results=50">I HeArTE JADE</a>.<br />
</p><p class="whitespace">Since October 2008, Strom&#8211;- already unpopular for her connections to the white separatist movement&#8211;- has earned the opprobrium of law enforcement by following around JADE members, photographing them, and giving them nicknames like "Dasani," "Longhead," "Pringle," and "Porn Star."<br />
</p><p class="whitespace">Her last post on July 16 reads tersely: "Uh-Oh. They're here."<br />
</p><p class="whitespace">The Code of Virginia forbids publication </p>
<!&#8211; This will not be inserted &#8211;><!&#8211; This will not be inserted &#8211;><div class="captionRightLandscape"><a href="http://www.readthehook.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/news-hearte-jade-logo.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-16799" title="news-hearte-jade-logo" src="http://www.readthehook.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/news-hearte-jade-logo-325x119.jpg" alt="news-hearte-jade-logo" width="325" height="119" /></a><strong>Elisha Strom declines to say why she "hearts"&#8211; or "hates" JADE, other than to call her interest in the drug task force a "hobby."</strong><br />
<small> FROM THE I HEARTE JADE WEBSITE<br />
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<p>of law-enforcement officers' addresses or photographs with the "intent to coerce, intimidate, or harass" in <a href="http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?000+cod+18.2-186.4">§18.2-186.4</a>. Most recently updated in 2007, the Class 6 felony carries a mandatory six-month jail sentence.<br />
</p><p class="whitespace">"It's not illegal to publish the address," argues Strom in an exclusive jailhouse interview nearly two weeks after her July 16 arrest. "It's not illegal to publish the photograph. It's illegal to do so with the intention of harassment."<br />
</p><p class="whitespace">She denies that harassment was her intent, and says she uses her blog to satisfy her curiosity about the task force, comparing her efforts to investigative journalism.<br />
</p><p class="whitespace">"Part of the problem is the concern for people who'd want to do harm to an officer trying to perform his job," says Albemarle Commonwealth's Attorney Denise Lunsford. "There are many ways to prove intent."<br />
</p><p class="whitespace">Lunsford reels off such factors as the language on I HeArTE JADE, the context, and what Strom may have said to other people.<br />
</p><p class="whitespace">Strom insists that JADE no longer constitutes an undercover task force because Charlottesville is so small that the officers rely on informants to infiltrate drug networks. "I didn't put up any information about informants," she declares.<br />
</p><p class="whitespace">The officer's address Strom published came from public records, as both Charlottesville and Albemarle put real estate records online. She added a photograph of the officer's house&#8211; some house photos are also available online&#8211; and a picture of him getting into a Monte Carlo.<br />
</p><p class="whitespace">"I think they're embarrassed, and I think they're mad," opines Strom of the JADE men. She adds that she's sorry about the concern she caused the officer whose address she posted.<br />
</p><p class="whitespace">Her interest in JADE stems, she says, from the arrest and conviction of her estranged husband, white separatist <a href="http://www.readthehook.com/Stories/2007/01/11/NEWS-strom-B.rtf.aspx">Kevin Strom</a>, for one count of child porn possession. He was found <a href="http://www.readthehook.com/blog/index.php/2007/10/03/charges-tossed-in-supremacists-trial/">not guilty</a> of intimidating a witness&#8211;- <a href="http://www.readthehook.com/Stories/2008/01/17/NEWS-strom-elisha-C.rtf.aspx">Elisha</a>&#8211;- and enticement of a minor in October 2007, but <a href="http://www.readthehook.com/Stories/2008/04/24/NEWS-strom-A.aspx">pleaded guilty</a> to the kiddie porn charge and served 23 months.<br />
</p><p class="whitespace">One of the investigators on the Kevin Strom case, Charlottesville Police Detective Brian O'Donnell, also has worked on the JADE task force.<br />
</p><p class="whitespace">What's unclear is whether a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision, <em><a href="http://www.acluva.org/docket/ostergren.html">Ostergren v. McDonnell</a></em>, will have any effect on the law under which Strom is charged.<br />
</p><p class="whitespace">Privacy advocate B.J. Ostergren was aggrieved that Virginia public records often include Social Security Numbers, and to call attention to the identity-theft threat, she published the SSNs of public officials that she found online.<br />
</p><p class="whitespace">The General Assembly responded by making it illegal to publish such info, even if it came from government records. Unconstitutional, ruled the U.S. Supreme Court in June.<br />
</p><p class="whitespace">ACLU of Virginia executive director Kent Willis sees a lot of similarity between Virginia's police-harassment law and a similar one in Washington state that was overturned by U.S. District Court in <em>Sheehan v. Gregoire</em>.<br />
</p><p class="whitespace">"Based on the <em>Sheehan</em> case, [Virginia] law is probably unconstitutional as written," says Willis. "You can publish information about public officials to goad them to action. It can't contain an actual threat to do physical harm."<br />
</p><p class="whitespace">Unemployed, Strom has been unable to post $7,500 in bond. Her next court date is September 17.<br />
</p><p class="whitespace">"A girl came in for assaulting an officer the same weekend I did, and she got less bond then me," notes Strom. "I never assaulted an officer."<br />
</p><p class="whitespace">Meanwhile, her blog is still up. "It's not coming down while I'm in here," she says.<br />
</p><p class="whitespace"><em>Updated 9:35am July 30.</em></p>
http://www.readthehook.com/70679/hobby-or-harassment-blogger-strom-jailed-cop-site#comments_BreakingNewsFeaturedCrime/JusticeGovt/Politicsacluharassjade task forceostergrenstromu.s. supreme courtThu, 30 Jul 2009 11:24:38 +0000lisa70679 at http://www.readthehook.com